So I hope you enjoyed the video from yesterday. If you haven't checked it out, watch the Youtube video posted from yesterday's blog, or click here.
I wanted to clarify from the video exactly what happens in the wet-dry filter, so that some of you beginners may not become confused. Essentially, one of the key elements in a wet-dry filter is "oxygen transfer". Your fish need to have a good supply of oxygen from the water. As the water trickles down through the chambers of a wet dry filter, oxygen is being absorbed from the air into the water. Not only this, but the surface of the bioballs contain nitrifying bacteria (meaning, they feed off the pollutants in the water passing over them), which also need oxygen from the air to function properly.
Many wet dry filters differ slightly in their design, but the general filtering process is the same. All wet dry filters will have chambers the water passes through to allow for the filtration process. They will all contain a layer of "pre-filter" material, which is usually a filter pad made of synthetic fiber material. This dense synthetic fiber will essentially trap all of the particles which are not molecular in size. These pre-filter pads will need to be changed often (probably weekly, if not every two to three weeks.
Bio balls also require some maintenance because they DO get dirty after time. If you have a new tank setup (less than 6 months old), you will only want to clean a portion of your bio-balls at one time. Check out this article for instructions on how to clean bio-balls:
How to clean bio-balls
There's a lot more choices as to enhancing your wet dry filter system so you can get much better water quality output. As for now, just learn the basics, and I'll go into the finer details at a later time. My next blog will be on basic equipment you'll need to decide on before you get started.
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